Mother's cries for help shatter morning calm

Peter GardinerWhat is in The Spray that Peter Gardiner uses so liberally on the sporting shonks and shysters every Thursday? Pete rants at all the sporting injustices at this world…like why can’t Darren Lockyer go back to playing fullback and why the hell did they put Eddie McGuire in charge of everything?

Screams for help shattered the Saturday morning serenity of the Glasshouse Mountains’ surrounds yesterday as a family of five, including three young children, fled their burning home.

A distressed mother repeatedly called for help as flames and thick black smoke engulfed the family room of a single brick house off Glasshouse-Woodford Road at 10.24am.

A neighbour heard the mother’s cries of alarm and dialled triple 0, but a unit from the Beerwah auxiliary fire and rescue service was already on the way.

“I heard her screaming – I looked out and I saw black smoke,” he said.

“She was just screaming ‘help!help!help!’.”

Fire and rescue officers, who entered the building in breathing gear to attack the flames with high pressure hoses, believe the fire started outside the house beside the engulfed room.

Beerwah fire captain Luke Chapman said the crew first checked to make sure all the house occupants were out of the house.

The children, who were not injured, were all “young enough to need car seats” as their charred toys indicated.

“There was smoke and flame issuing from the northern side,” Captain Chapman said.

“There was a small area of flame outside.”

A water tanker from Coochin Creek plus fire units from Caloundra and Woodford were called to the blaze along with the Queensland Ambulance Service.

Cpt Chapman said the fire was brought under control in about 10 minutes and the fire officers administered oxygen to the mother who was suffering from shock before ambulance officers continued the treatment.

She did not require transportation to hospital.

“We were able to contain the fire to the immediate area – there was substantial damage to the room,” Cpt Chapman said.

“The boys inside did a good job to contain it to where it is.”

Another of the attending officers said: “We’ve got a fair idea the fire started down this (northern) end of the house.